substitute for wyeast 1764 pacman

i'm going to brew a clone Rogue Dead Guy ale. recipe calls for wyeast 1764 pacman. my lhbs doesn't sell that yeast (and says they can't even get it). they suggest wyeast 1056 as a substitute.

i see i can order 1764 from rebelbrewer.com for $6.99 . . . . or i can buy 1056 from my lhbs for $6.25.

does anybody know of another substitute to 1764 pacman yeast? there's really no risk in my ordering it from rebelbrewer.com (other than i've never ordered anything from them before). or am i making a mountain out of a molehill?

are there other yeasts that are better substitute?

thanks.

whitelabs San Diego Super

I'd buy S-05 before 1056, it's cheap!!!

S-05 works fine. You can cultivate pacman from the Rogue Stout or Brutal Bitter bottles which I have done. Pacman is probably a bit better but for convenience I used S-05 last time I brewed something calling for it and I probably will again unless my LHBS has it, it is only available from the private collection in certain seasons.

Austin Homebrew lists WLP 051 as an equivalent.
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=1784

I've been working with Pacman all season; it is comparable to WLP 051 and WLP 001.

Since pacman is all I use on my house beers, I have to recommend you try it. If a yeast exists somewhere that matches the amazingness of pacman, I have not yet found it

Pacman is great.

If you can't get it, 1056 or S-05 are pretty good substitutes. They will not attenuate as well as PacMan, but if you replace some extract (I'm assuming you are doing extract) with some table sugar (say about 0.5 lbs), it will help it attenuate better.

+1 for San Diego Super Yeast

Germelli1 said:

Since pacman is all I use on my house beers, I have to recommend you try it. If a yeast exists somewhere that matches the amazingness of pacman, I have not yet found it

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if you have to order yours online, can you recommend a site to order it from? the only two lhbs near me say they either cannot get it, or haven't even heard of it. i DID fine a few sites that sell it, and it appears it will cost me more than $20 - which includes the yeast, ice pack, and 3-5 day delivery.

thanks.

1056 is damn close.

I like RebelBrewer. With a gelpak and standard shipping (which probably would get to you in 3 or 4 days), it would probably be about $11.

You might want to see what else you might want from Rebel. I stock up on a lot of grains (I Partial mash), and end up filling my order up to about the maximum weight for basic ground shipping (about 67 lbs). Shipping ends up around $17, or a little less than $0.30 a lb. A lot of their stuff is cheaper than other on-line stores that offer $7.99 shipping, and with a big order, it can end up significantly cheaper after adding in shipping.

Zokfend said:

if you have to order yours online, can you recommend a site to order it from? the only two lhbs near me say they either cannot get it, or haven't even heard of it. i DID fine a few sites that sell it, and it appears it will cost me more than $20 - which includes the yeast, ice pack, and 3-5 day delivery.

thanks.

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I harvest it from rogue bottles. If you have a store that carries rogue beers, here is all you do:

Buy a bomber or two of your favorite rogue beer except dead guy ale...I have used shakespeare stout, chocolate stout, hazelnut nectar and others (Just make sure it says pacman yeast on the bottle).

Boil up a small DME starter (I uses .5L at 1.030 to start).
Have a buddy over to help you kill the bombers
Leave an inch of beer in each bomber.
Give them a swirl to dissolve the yeast cakes in the bottom of the bottles
Pour both bombers into starter wort.
Wait (usually takes me 3 days, but sometimes less)
Step up your starter once to the volume you need
After 1 day past the step up, Pitch the entire starter into beer without decanting (I ALWAYS do this on the first pitch of bottle harvested yeast...those yeast in suspension are the ones I want in my beer)

It is a little more work than ordering it online, but the satisfaction of watching your 1.070 beer ferment out to 1.015 in 2 days from yeast you harvested from the bottle is nice. Plus you can save that yeast cake for future brews!

@Germelli1, that is by far the simplest explanation of bottle harvesting I've ever seen! So much so that I'm going to run out and grab fixin's for a Dead Guy clone today, including a couple of my favorite Hazelnut Nectars. Yummmmmm...

You can also propagate Pacman from some Rogue bottles; that way you get to drink the beer, too. I think many people on here have had good luck with their stouts, but I am also pretty sure you can be successful with their other beers as well.

torque2k said:

@Germelli1, that is by far the simplest explanation of bottle harvesting I've ever seen! So much so that I'm going to run out and grab fixin's for a Dead Guy clone today, including a couple of my favorite Hazelnut Nectars. Yummmmmm...

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Glad it helped! Hazelnut nectar is an amazing beer and the one that got my best friend hooked on craft breweries. One thing I found that helped (if you have the time) is let the bombers sit in the fridge for a few hours or preferably overnight. When I buy them it is usually a 20 minute drive home that disturbs the yeast cakes so I like to give them a day to settle back out!

I've heard you shouldn't reuse yeast from a beer over 1.050 OG. Assuming you get it from a stout, wouldn't it probably be over. 05? Any issues with this?

Also, anyone know where to find a clone of the double dead guy?

tgmartin000 said:

I've heard you shouldn't reuse yeast from a beer over 1.050 OG. Assuming you get it from a stout, wouldn't it probably be over. 05? Any issues with this?

Also, anyone know where to find a clone of the double dead guy?

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That is not bad advice, but when you are getting such a small number of cells from a bottle you are basically regrowing your own colony. I have used pacman for up to 7 generations...and my last beer I mashed at 158 and it fermented to 1.010 haha.